MUSCAT: The Ministry of Labour launched the third edition of the “on-the-job training” programme in cooperation with the Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED).
The initiative, which targets Omani job seekers with a bachelor’s degree or less, provides a stipend for trainees for a duration of 12 months.
Juhaina al Rumhi from the Training Support Centre in the Ministry of Labour, shared: "The initiative encourages entrepreneurship through providing SMEs with national cadres that will boost the growth of the SME sector and lending support to them by bearing the trainees' monthly stipends.”
"The importance of this initiative lies in training and qualifying job seekers with employment guarantee commensurate with the requirement of the SMEs labour market,” she added.
Additionally, trainees will also be filed for social security.
Candidates are selected through the ministry’s job seeker database, or through direct nomination by small and medium enterprises. The Ministry of Labour bears the entire cost of the training stipend in the first year and bears 50 per cent of it in the second year.
The following monthly stipends have been allocated for different graduates, RO 300 for general diploma holders, RO 400 for university diploma holders and RO 500 for bachelor holders.
In a press conference, the Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED) revealed that it received 3,033 applications submitted by small and medium enterprises in the process thus far.
The initiative was first introduced in 2021 as a response to reduce the after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to support small and medium enterprises, and to increase the employability of job seekers by equipping them with the required technical and professional skills.
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